Publius Huldah. Near 30:30 minutes into her speech, Ms. Huldah posits that James Madison opposed the state convention method in Article V. She cites The Federalist #49, and a private letter from Madison to a Virginia legislator named George Lee Turberville. Rodney Dodsworth Response. Considering that Madison made provision for amendments in his Virginia Plan of Government, and his notes of the federal convention do not reflect hostility to Article V, the bar must be set high for anyone to claim that Madison opposed a state convention to propose amendments. Ms. Huldah failed to clear the bar. Those who rely...

Many people view Texas as an extremely gun friendly state. Texas has been becoming gun friendly, but the image has not been entirely deserved. The Texas Legislature only restored partial open carry rights last year, after banning most open carry for a hundred and thirty years after Reconstruction. Open carry still requires a permit from the state. The permit fee is $140, putting it out of the reach of many people. State Representative Jonathan Stickland wants to change that. From caller.com: “It’s time in Texas to restore our Second Amendment rights to their originally intended level,” said state Rep....

Yes, it is good that Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, especially in light of revelations of her private email security breaches and pay-for-play administration of the State Department. If true, she belongs in prison. However, what is ominous is the number of voters who, despite all that was known of her crimes, still voted for her. This is not a sign of a healthy American electorate. It seems the same citizens who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 after his disastrous first four years voted for her. Many people who go the polls in our generation are simply not thinking....

The 17th Amendment, which allowed the popular election of U.S. senators, “disenfranchised” state legislatures and altered the U.S. Constitution's checks and balances, Chapman University Law Professor John Eastman told an audience of state legislators in Washington, D.C. last week. The amendment made it easier for Congress to pass legislation, which eventually led to the massive growth in federal power that the states are still grappling with today... “What the founders did is come up with this counterintuitive notion that adding an extra layer of government would provide less government and greater liberty. And it only worked if those governments were...

The news cycle whipped itself up into a national discussion about flag burning this week after President-elect Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday. After the now-infamous tweet, countless voices on both the Left and the Right condemned the statement, each making their own arguments, most condemning the act of flag burning while defending your right to do so.

In a moment of glory for Constitution nerds, "Emoluments Clause" was trending last week on Twitter. That's the clause in our nation's founding document that bans federal officeholders from accepting favors from foreign governments without the OK of Congress. It has come to the fore in part because the operations of the Trump Organization regularly throw President-elect Trump and his family into business relations with such governments and their representatives. For example, Trump just threw an event welcoming potential customers to his newly opened Washington hotel, which is expected to do a boom business on inauguration week. Some diplomats told...

After complaining for months that our electoral process takes too long, now some commentators apparently want it to take even longer. Lawrence Lessig has written an article for The Washington Post saying that members of the Electoral College should ignore what they were actually elected to do, and should take it upon themselves to give the presidency to Hillary Clinton. His argument is that since Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, she is the “people’s choice.” Other commentators have made similar claims, and given the general angst and unhappiness that fills so much of the commentariat these days, we can...

Publius Huldah. Alexander Hamilton wrote, “The people are the natural guardians of the Constitution.” Hamilton expected us, the people, to differentiate between lawful exercise and illegal usurpation of power. If the power is on ‘the list,’ (Article I § 8) congress may do it, otherwise, congress may not. She hammers Scotus for corrupting the commerce, general welfare, and necessary and proper clauses, . . . but the nation doesn’t need an Article V convention. “Just look it up in the federalist papers for original intent,” she says.Rodney Dodsworth Response. Ms. Huldah is well-educated, which leaves me at a loss to...

Federal employees face a long overdue reckoning Give this some thought: We are a nation based on a system of federalism, which means that largely sovereign states are united under a limited federal government that performs only certain essential functions - those enumerated in the Constitution - and leaves all functions not so enumerated to the states by law. That is the idea. So how did we get to the point where a federal government supposedly so limited has 2.1 million employees? And how did that group of federal employees become such a privileged class that they're almost impossible to...

Over the past year, many people have asked what I’ll do after the election. It’s reasonable to assume my public service is connected to my personal politics. But I don’t see it that way. For one, my politics have changed quite a bit after serving in the federal government for 6 years. They haven’t shifted across the simple “left-right” spectrum that does the complexity of our country such a disservice. Instead, while my expectation of what government both can and should do is much more conservative than before, I’ve never been more optimistic that for those things we can do,...

Democrat Mayors in all those tiny little blue districts that lost the 2016 elections are revolting after the election and not just against the incoming administration or Donald Trump. They are revolting against the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law, in a manner which amounts to sedition against all U.S. citizens. In a word, they are committing acts of treason!

The electoral college system for choosing the President was based upon the protection of slavery and a distrust of democracy. That system has allowed the loser of the popular vote to win the Presidency in five of our 56 Presidential elections. Such a system would be illegal in any state or local election. But it is contained in the Constitution. Can a section of the Constitution itself be unconstitutional? The answer is yes. We are all aware by now that we do not vote directly for a candidate in a Presidential election. We vote for electors who will (presumably) vote...

In this post, I draw a parallel between the Second Amendment and Article V. The Second Amendment grants nothing. It is through Natural Law, the Law of Reason, and not by a Constitution or statute that we are entitled to defend ourselves. Not only do each of us have a natural interest in self-preservation, but because we are all God’s work, meaning His property, we have a clear and positive duty to preserve His creation. To facilitate individual self-preservation, God made man naturally social. John Locke wrote, “God having made man such a creature, that, in His own judgement, it...

President Trump lost no time in starting his administration. He put up a website, greatagain.gov, that outlines his priorities, advertises for political appointees of the highest caliber, and states his positions. He devotes a policy section to Constitutional Rights. In it, he goes much further than recent residents of the White House. His choice of words is telling. From greatagain.gov: Donald Trump understands the solemn duty that comes from the Oath of Office – swearing to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." He embraces the fact that the reason the Founders of this nation decided...

Donald Trump made a number of promises when he was campaigning to be the President of the United States. Many of them can be achieved fairly quickly. Some will be fought, tooth and nail by "Progressive" dominated states. Here are three that can be done quickly and should be insisted upon. First: Appoint Antonin Scalia literalists to the Supreme Court. This was the cornerstone of President Trump's support for the Second Amendment. Trump should push for this fast and hard. He should be held to this promise on any future court appointees. From donaldtrump.com: Appoint justices to the United...

Donald Trump will work to pass legislation designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, said Walid Phares, a foreign policy advisor for the president-elect. Speaking to the Egyptian news outlet Youm7, Phares said the legislation, which was already approved by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year and referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was held up due to the Obama administration’s support of the group. Clarion Project spearheaded a campaign to educate legislators and move the bill forward over the past year. The bill currently has bipartisan support. In November of 2015, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced...

The free press tradition, in which newspapers and pamphlets expose government malfeasance, goes back to early 18th century England. Among the periodicals that skewered high government and Anglican church officials was a weekly English newspaper, The Independent Whig (1719-1720). Written largely by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, (of future Cato’s Letters fame) the Independent Whig exposed and ridiculed with exquisite snark, the divine right of kings, the established church, and those who grew wealthy from government corruption. Trenchard and Gordon’s popular columns were endlessly reprinted in America, well into the 1750s. From them, colonists learned more of the foundations of...

We dodged a bullet last Tuesday. A bullet directed at the heart of the American dream. In the timely defeat of Hillary Clinton and in the stunning victory of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, a significant battle has been won. Much, however, remains to be done -- at levels strategic and foundational -- if we are to carry days beyond this day. As a matter of strategic import, we must restore the real-world governing centrality of the U.S. Constitution, as written and not as killed by secularists and their dead "living" "Constitution" -- which they then mangle to make it...

(videos at link) Full Title : Donald Trump looking for fast way to QUIT climate agreement: President-elect who said global warming is a 'hoax' wants to 'leave Paris deal as soon as possible' Subtitle : Since Trump was elected, governments ranging from China to small island states have reaffirmed support for the 2015 Paris Agreement Trump has called global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the Paris Agreement He was considering ways to bypass a theoretical four-year procedure for leaving the accord, according to the source 'It was reckless for the Paris agreement to enter into force before...

Even before Donald Trump chooses a Supreme Court nominee, the new president can take steps to make several contentious court cases go away. Legal challenges involving immigration, climate change, cost-free contraceptive care and transgender rights all could be affected, without any help from Congress... The cases turn on Obama administration policies that rely on the president's pen, regulations or decisions made by federal agencies. And what one administration can do, the next can undo.

NEW YORK (AP) -- For the combatants in America's long-running culture wars, the triumph of Donald Trump and congressional Republicans was stunning - sparking elation on one side, deep dismay on the other. Advocates of LGBT rights and abortion rights now fear setbacks instead of further gains. But the outcome emboldened the anti-abortion movement and breathed new life into the religious right's campaign for broad exemptions from same-sex marriage and other laws. Kelly Shackelford, head of First Liberty Institute, a legal group that specializes in religious freedom cases, said that, for his cause, the environment will transform from "brutal" under...

Former Attorney General Eric Holder joins Bill Maher to discuss the aftermath of Donald Trump's election and calls for the abolition of the Electoral College. Holder said the U.S. should elect presidents via popular vote instead of through electoral votes. The former attorney general said there is a simple solution, "we have to just abolish the electoral college."

A common concern among Article V opponents is that society is too corrupt to be trusted with amending the Constitution. Perhaps they are right. If so, how did this corruption come about? Is it as bad as many believe? I say the corruption of our culture did not grow upward from the people; corruption rained downward from elites. I place the blame for societal corruption largely on scotus. Scotus not only regularly ignores or violates the written supreme law of the land, it often does the same with Natural Law, the Law of Reason. Scotus has normalized its judicial reach...

Blue-sters: Welcome to living in a world of isolation CHICAGO - It's evidently scary and somewhat traumatizing for Liberals to realize that there's half a population in America that sees things totally different from them. And there's a sizable number in the only blue Midwestern state of Illinois, too. What Liberals don't understand is that those that see the world from a traditional conservative perspective have been fully aware of the Leftist view imposed upon them and have psychologically learned to deal with it. It has made conservatives stronger and more committed to liberty than ever as they've watched the...

The right to hunt is something early colonists took seriously. In England, the right to hunt was limited to the the King and landowners. Commoners did not have a right to hunt. In the American colonies, hunting was important for survival. Vermont included the right to hunt in its constitution in 1777. The right to hunt was considered for the United States Constitution, but ultimately was not explicitly included. It falls under the 10th Amendment.Nineteen states have the right to hunt in their state constitutions. In the last 20 years, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Minnesota, Montana,...

The underpinnings of a decent society are neutral laws -- laws that favor no particular individual or group -- and the impartial enforcement of those laws. The U.S. Supreme Court's job is to ensure the impartial enforcement of our laws. But our two presidential candidates differ in their visions of court appointees. Hillary Clinton says that she would "look broadly and widely for people who represent the diversity of our country" and that "we need a Supreme Court that will stand up on behalf of women's rights (and) on behalf of the rights of the LGBT community." In contrast, Donald...

Non-Resistance and Passive Obedience. The people who spout ‘diversity is our strength’ have cast a mind-dulling net of intellectual conformity across our nation. Thought police don’t just troll the halls of academe; they have infiltrated society so deeply that violence from those offended by supposedly hurtful thoughts or words is sanctioned by the highest levels of government and popular institutions. Trump supporters can find themselves beaten up. Municipal police in San Jose CA just watched and stood idly by as Trump rally attendees were assaulted. Since Trump is obviously a racist, then so are his followers. Opposition to racism is...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi denounced Republican chatter about impeaching Hillary Clinton as "a brazen attempt" to defy the results of the presidential election. "In addition to there being no grounds for impeachment to begin with, moving to impeach President Hillary Clinton for alleged activities from before the election would be a brazen attempt to nullify the vote of the American people, outside our constitutional framework and destructive to the Framers' intent," the California Democrat said in a Thursday statement. FBI Director James Comey notified lawmakers last week that investigators have reopened the investigation of Clinton's use of a private...

Most democratic nations do not have anything similar to the First Amendment. Nations like Canada and the Netherlands have hate speech laws, where it is common to outlaw what Marxists consider to be offensive. Geert Wilders is being prosecuted in the Netherlands for saying things that are perfectly legal in America.

Raise your hand if you knew that James Madison opposed the second method in Article V to amend the Constitution. The New Americana (TNA) recently published a misleading and insult-laden column regarding the Article V state convention amendment process and Convention of States (COS) supporters. It illustrates how the most effective deceptions are built around an element of truth. The TNA shamelessly attempts to deceive the reader into believing the very opposite of the truth, that the man who shepherded the Virginia Plan to fruition as a new Constitution of government opposed taking appropriate measures to keep it. As a...

With the revelation that the FBI is re-opening its investigation into Hillaryâ€™s emails and Trump on the rise because he is keeping his mouth shut, many are wondering if Trump could pull off a major come-from-behind victory. The problem is even if his positive trajectory continues through Election Day, it might already be too late for him. Hillary might have already banked an insurmountable lead prior to the authentic Election Day set by Congress since 1845. According to the New York Times, with eight days until official Election Day, over 22 million people had already voted early. Some estimate that...

At a campaign rally Tuesday in Ohio, President Obama warned voters not to be "bamboozled" by Donald Trump. "“If you disrespect the Constitution by threatening to shut down the press when it doesn’t say things you like or threaten to throw your opponent in jail or discriminate against people of different faiths," he said. "If you do that before you are elected, then what are you gonna do when you have actual power to do those things?" Direct link to video: YouTube: Obama Slams Trump

Over the course of the last six decades only one Supreme Court appointee of a president representing the party of the American Left has veered ever so slightly from the progressive party line on any case of significance. That individual, Byron "Whizzer" White, was named to the Court by John F. Kennedy back in 1962. Among those few cases where White departed from his voting pattern there is not a single instance that his deviation involved a deciding vote. On the other hand, the list of "Republican" Supreme Court appointees over the same period, constituting a majority on the Court,...

What do you say when someone running for office asks for your vote? Let's say someone knocks at your door and they smile and tell you that they are running for State Delegate or State Representative or State Senate, or maybe for some County office like County Council or Sheriff. Maybe they are running for Congress or US Senate. Let's say you know little about them except that they are polite and make a nice appearance. They ask for your support and maybe for some money to help their campaign. Do you just say yes to be nice? Or do...

Let’s step back for a moment from the depressing media-generated noise and nonsense surrounding this presidential election season. Forget that a crime family might be installed in the highest reaches of power. Instead, let us take refuge and solace in an uplifting first principle of our Declaration and Constitution. An occasional criticism of Thomas Jefferson’s edited Declaration of Independence is the substitution of ‘pursuit of happiness’ for that of ‘property.’ Both are Lockean terms well-suited for our Lockean Declaration. While we may never know precisely why this was done, the pursuit of happiness conceptually encompasses a wider universe of unalienable...

Dear Utah, Don’t be stupid. A vote for Evan McMullin is a vote for Hillary Clinton. Period. End of story. He is not some prophet come to call the Republican Party out of the wilderness. He is not the genesis of some new conservative movement. He is not the future of anything. He is some odd ball who popped up late in a campaign on an undertaking that would be called quixotic at best and psychotic at worst. Not trying to be cruel. Just trying to be honest. Some in Utah have decided that Donald Trump is going to lose...

On November 8th, the last ballots will be cast for Representatives, Senators and a President. At the risk of betraying my age, I recall when nearly all voting was done on election day, and local newspapers and TV devoted as much time to reps and senators as they did to presidential campaigns. Election coverage shared space with other important national and world news. No more. Reps and senators get comparatively little press exposure. World news, to the extent that it is noticed at all, is colored to cause the least embarrassment possible to Obama. Most news from all sources is...

Right-wing militia groups have grown steadily since the 2008 election of President Barack Obama and they continue to grow, according to a new report released this week. The left-leaning Political Research Associates published “Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement” during a presidential election season that’s seen Republican nominee Donald Trump appeal to such right-wing groups while Democrat Hillary Clinton has been the subject of ire for those same groups. The report says Oregon has one of the most developed militia movements in the country and it details the rise of the movement, including events and groups...

Donald Trump is no legal scholar, but at Wednesday’s presidential debate he showed a superior grasp of the U.S. Constitution than did Hillary Clinton. Amid the overwrought liberal fainting about Mr. Trump’s bluster over accepting the election result (see below), Mrs. Clinton revealed a view of the Supreme Court that is far more threatening to American liberty. Start with her answer to moderator Chris Wallace’s question about the role of the courts. “The Supreme Court should represent all of us. That’s how I see the Court,” she said. “And the kind of people that I would be looking to nominate...

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to allow Japan to obtain nuclear weapons, stressing that Japan’s pacifist Constitution was written by the United States. “Does he not understand we wrote Japan’s constitution to say they could not be a nuclear power?” Biden said in a speech he delivered in Scranton, Pa., for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. “Where was he when in school?” Biden asked. “Someone who lacks this judgment cannot be trusted,” he said. “He’s not qualified to know the [nuclear] codes,” the U.S. vice president said. Trump has suggested that...

Article II 4: The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. 5: No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. Article XIV (Amendment 14...

At the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Mary Habeck, an adjunct lecturer at John Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies (known as SAIS), noted that terrorism has spiked since 2011. She said that today, "the terrorist threat against the U.S. has never been greater." She added, "You have to go back to the Algerian civil war to find" this number of terrorist attacks. Habeck said, "First of all, al-Qaeda and ISIS [known as the Islamic State, or ISIL] have a plan and they’re executing it." "They have created a whole series of campaign plans for each country," Habeck said, and "ISIS inherited...

About That "Pillar" Of American Democracy... by Tyler Durden Oct 20, 2016 3:20 PM 0 SHARES Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,The series of debates in the contest to see who will become Captain of the Titanic is finally over.And as the smoke clears from the eveningâ€™s entertainment, the main headlines are focusing on just one thing: Donald Trumpâ€™s pledged refusal to say he will accept the election results.The media is spinning itself into an absolute frenzy over this, perhaps even worse than the Pussygate tape.It started even before the debate, with yesterdayâ€™s headline in the Washington Post read, â€śTrumpâ€™s...

WASHINGTON â€• Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump advocated for a literal interpretation of the Constitution during the third, and final debate, on Wednesday. Â“The justices that IÂ’m going to appoint will be pro-life, they will have a conservative vent,Â” Trump said in response to a question about how the Constitution should be interpreted. Â“They will be protecting the Second Amendment. They are great scholars in all cases â€• and theyÂ’re people of tremendous respect. They will interpret the Constitution the way the founders wanted it interpreted.Â” ThatÂ’s not cool. HereÂ’s what was going on when the Constitution was written in...

America is in a civil war which at its root is a spiritual battle between light and darkness. Christians cannot and should not run away from it. By God's grace we must face it prayerfully and confidently, not with anger or hatred in our hearts toward our fellow man, but with a resolve that freedom is worth fighting for and if necessary, dying for. The casualties of this war have so far mostly been the 70K+ defenseless unborn. God assigns different roles to different people in this war. In the American Civil War of 1861-1865, many Christians fought and died...

Dear Mr. Trump. If you have an opening or closing statement in tonight's debate, I request that you take this last opportunity to detail why you want to "Make America Great Again". If not statements, then interject your message where appropriate. Below is a start.